Unfinished business

To say the least, I've been distracted and there's definitely been a drought on work and posts. To try to get something significant done on the house, I recently tackled the front entryway which has been the only part of upstairs that's untouched by new trim or paint. So, here's the before and afters.

Closet with old-style trim

New door never trimmed out

Close up. I need to cutback the chair rail.

Front door with new trim.

Semi-fancy custom pieced together trim.

All painted.

Little wider shot of finished product.

Let's see if that sparks some creativity to tackle some more projects. Perhaps?

Indeed.

HVAC replacement, new roof and gutters

After the water heater, I went spending wild, and have been enjoying putting the responsibility of fixing the house into the pros hands. To continue throwing money at problems, I replaced the furnace, the A/C, the roof, and the gutters. The furnace was long due to be replaced, and when doing so, I had to replace the A/C because the old one used now illegal refrigerant. The new furnace is 96% efficient, and the A/C compressor is huge (and quiet) compared to the previous one. I also went fancy and got an ecobee 4 pro thermostat.
As far as the roof, I opted for a Landmark Pro shingle in Max Def Weathered Wood. I liked the variety in colors and figure it'll match well now, and for any house color in the future. The gutters are just a seamless aluminium with Gutterstuff gutter guards.

New Ruud U96 furnance

Exhaust and now, intake, using existing flue.

Light at the end of the tunnel...

New roof. They even painted the flue and other exhaust pipes.

Water heater update

My vintage 1998 water heater finally tanked and started to leak all over the floor. Luckily it was slow and I discovered it pretty quickly. After that, the search for a plumber and researching what was the best replacement began. I was toying with the idea of installing my own tankless water heater but when I had to deal with no hot water at all in the house, the urgency of the fix really sunk in. A pro took all day to install the gear. It probably would have taken me weeks...
So, I got a tankless water heater and a water softener installed. Turns out my plumbing was already set up for a softener, I was just clueless to the fact. As I didn't do anything - here's just the before and after photos of the plumber's work. Wait! I did add an electrical outlet for the heater and softener...

Before. Tank.

After. Rinnai RUR199IN Tankless heater and a softener.

Front of house before.

Added exhaust and intake cover for heater.

Steps for the Deck

Not sure why it took so long for my brain to figure out the maths for the deck steps. I didn't want to have to rip any of the 2x4s down and was trying to keep as close to the 7"x11" rule of rise over run for the steps. I also had to perform some surgery on the pressure treated supports as they were bowed and made it difficult to attach anything to them. In the end I ended up gluing and fastening 2x4 supports to the sides of them (using clamps). They all cracked in half, but they at least turned out straight and with the 2x4s supports are super solid.

Getting an idea for the support structure.

Shows the 2x4 supports and how I screwed the steps into the deck.

Once again, wrapped in cedar to keep it pretty.

The finished steps.

The complete look.

Deck gets a top

Had a truck toting buddy named Matt help me grab all the wood for the deck. Had to get a bunch that was 10 feet long which was too much for my car. In order to present a nicer finish than the pressure treated structure, I got some oiled cedar planks to wrap the sides of the structure. Definitely makes it look nicer. For the top planks I used redwood. For the extra details, I used 8D nails for spacers between the 2x4 planks, and I kept a 1/4" overhang on the edges of the deck. I also made sure to keep the "bark side" of the wood up, so with aging the wood doesn't start cupping.

I mitered the corners too, for a finished look.

Kind of a before and after look.

Used the level as a guide to keep a clean cut.

Ghetto panel ripping (last one had to be 2 1/4" wide)

Close look at the cuts around the utilities.

Another close up look.

Not exactly huge for $350 worth of deck.

I've still got to make the step down from the sliding door, but just doing the top panels took most of the day. You can see I had to tweak the gutter too, just to get it out of the way. Eventually I'll divert it into a rain barrel.

Deck work

I made a plan to start work on the deck as it started to cool down a bit outside. Too bad the weekend got really hot and I was trying to work on the deck in 95 degree temps. Luckily I got the digging and concrete work done in the morning when it wasn't so hot, but I still got pretty fried.
My initial plan was to create a deck with a circular corner to fancy things up a bit. Determining how to do that was definitely challenging, and after blue stakes marked all the utility lines, I had to tweak my plans as to where to put the new concrete support.

Well, thanks Century Link, you're off by at least a foot...

Moved the concrete support back to avoid the phone line.

Cutting notches into posts for more solid support when bolted.

Possibly excessive hardware on the joints, but it'll definitely be solid.

Frame all done (second attempt). Was all out of level on first attempt.

Luckily, I didn't damage the telephone line when digging right into it. After creating the frame I had a bit of a spark of imagination too, and I think instead of the circular corner, I'm going to create a step down in the corner. As it is, the deck is still fairly high off the ground, so a small step will be helpful and I think create a nice transition down to the eventual patio.

Another nice thing is that I was able to reuse all the 2x6 pressure treated wood from the previous deck structure. I was also able to reuse the existing metal hardware, although I did have to buy some additional bolts and metal hardware.

Conquer?

Well, I've gotten fat and unmotivated, and something has to change. My exercise room has really languished and is being ignored. I never finished up the decor when I completed the gym, so I'm trying to do that to make it a more approachable and inspiring place. So, here's the first step. Add some Arnold. I've still got to find some mirrors (those seems required in a gym), and I've got some more artwork to add. Hopefully it will help make the space feel less empty and more inspiring.

Was a real pain in the butt lining up everything...

Update: The next few weeks I added in the rest of the decor and a mirror. I'm not sure if I'll add another mirror. I've still got to remove the pull-up bar as it just takes up too much space and is too close to the ceiling to be very useful. 

Appropriate clock and new tv with shelf readjusted.

Some artwork added and the mirror.